A year ago, I posted "The Back Garden Project is Complete" and added, "Now we wait for it to grow!" And grow it has. After a month of weekends getting the spring weeding under control and then a weekend of heavy rain, its looking very lush.

And the cabbage tree in front of the house - which makes such a mess for most of the year, and can only really be appreciated from the back garden looking over the house - is amazing at this time of year when its in full flower.

At three degrees outside, It may be the coldest start to an October day for 35 years but the sun is out, the amalanchiers and crabapples are in blossom and the azaleas and camelias are flowering. What a beautiful morning at Abbotsley!

Following the great success at Downderry and Mousehole in getting their driveways resurfaced last month, Karyn and Chris along with residents from The Barn, Devon Cottage, Wimborne and Badgers Wood decided to have their driveways re-surfaced with Coldstream toppings all on the same day thus sharing the contractor's material delivery and equipment rental costs. Abbotsley was first off the mark and the biggest job.

Now this is a big project I've been putting off for a couple of years but the old sleeper steps have rotted and were becoming dangerous so its time to tackle the job. This is what the old steps looked like

... and then a trailer load of AA grade old railway sleepers

Constructing Step 1

Constructing Step 3

Now Step 4

And Step 5

And finally, the full-width Top Step

The brick paver path leading to the front steps was very uneven and a bit of a tripping hazard as the spotted gum had grown and it would be better if the bottom step was the same riser height as all the others so a Coldstream topping path was laid on top of the bricks. The extra railway sleeper next the driveway should keep it all under control. Looks pretty good!

The completed new steps

But what about those other front steps on the right? A job for another time - perhaps a long curved ramp instead?

Now we wait for it to grow!

Karyn picked these two beautiful azalea's up from the local supermarket and there's a perfect home for them under the tall fern by the other azaleas.

Most of the plants that we put in to the Mothers garden in May last year are doing really well but, unfortunately, one of the grevillias the didn't survive the dry autumn so we've put in a replacement today. It's a different variety but that won't matter.